Kiss of the Spider Woman was a rather unlikely film to have received so many mainstream honors. As an independent, foreign-based production (albeit starring American actors) with no major studio connections, telling a story with great compassion about the relationship between a flamboyant gay man and his radical political prisoner cellmate, it was considered a long shot for Academy Award nominations. But it received four, including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay, and won the Best Actor award for William Hurt's performance as Luis, the first time anyone had won an Oscar® for playing an openly gay character.

Hurt swept many of the major international awards that year, winning Best Actor at Cannes, BAFTA, Italy's Donatello Awards, and the Los Angeles Film Critics. He tied in the category with his co-star Raul Julia for the National Board of Review citation and with Bob Hoskins (Mona Lisa, 1985) for the London Film Critics Circle honor.

Both Hurt and Julia were praised by the critics for their sensitive and powerful portrayals of two unhappy prisoners of a repressive South American regime, a reflection of the social and political turmoil of Argentina, the native country of Manuel Puig, who wrote the novel on which the film is based. Hurt plays Luis Molina, who retreats into weaving escapist fantasies to endure his incarceration on morals charges. He is put in a cell with Valentin, a Marxist who despises Molina at first, not only for his homosexuality but for his refusal to engage in a society where people must take sides and fight for their causes. Over time, as Luis unfolds the cinematic stories of several movies he remembers, including one about a fictional femme fatale, the Spider Woman, the two men come to respect and care for each other. The story not only brings together two very divergent people on a personal level but also argues for the necessity, even the positive subversive effects, of both political activism and aesthetic fantasy to deal with the world's harshest realities and injustices.

At first, the two actors had difficulty achieving the right tone and chemistry for their performances, so William Hurt suggested they switch roles during rehearsal to get a better understanding of each other's characters. The experiment worked exceptionally well, so much so that Hurt even suggested to director Hector Babenco that they retain the switch for the filming. That didn't happen, but the process did help each grasp their individual roles better and added greatly to their intense interactions with each other.

Brazilian actress Sonia Braga did not receive any acting honors, but hers was a notable feat as well. As the titular Spider Woman and another character from a different film memory Molina relates, she has to walk a fine line, giving a depiction of cheesy melodramatic acting without crossing into laughable parody. Her effort is even more remarkable considering the fact that, despite working with an Argentine-born, naturalized Brazilian director on location in her own homeland, she had to perform in English, a language she was not yet fluent in, forcing her to learn lines phonetically. She also plays a third role outside of Molina's fantasies, a surprise cameo that helps make even stronger thematic and character connections to the story.

Hector Babenco was unknown in this country until the unexpected success of his film Pixote (1981), a hard-hitting look at the desperate life of a ten-year-old street kid in Sao Paulo. Kiss of the Spider Woman was his first film in English. Its great success enabled him to direct the Jack Nicholson-Meryl Streep film Ironweed (1987). His next picture, At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991), with a largely American cast, was not a success, and he returned to South America, turning out more films of much acclaim, including another prison drama, Carandiru (2003).

In an interview with National Public Radio, William Hurt related a story about how he and a female companion, during a day off from shooting, were abducted at gunpoint by several men in Sao Paulo. According to Hurt, the gunmen told them to face a wall, execution style, which he refused to do, resulting in a brief shouting match, after which all of the abductors simply left the scene. He told NPR he did not report the incident to the production company for fear it would cause filming to be shut down.

Leonard Schrader (1943-2006), who adapted Puig's novel for the screen, was the brother of Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980) and directed American Gigolo (1980) and Affliction (1997), among many others. The two brothers collaborated on Mishima (1985), and Blue Collar (1978). They were raised in a strict Dutch Calvinist family where they were not allowed to see any movies as kids. Leonard didn't see his first film until he was in college in the 1960s.

Kiss of the Spider Woman was made into a stage musical with music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb and book by playwright Terrence McNally. The play ran in London's West End in 1992 and on Broadway in 1993, to mixed reviews, certainly nowhere near the praise heaped on the film version. Nevertheless, it won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for Broadway legend Chita Rivera as the Spider Woman.

Director: Hector Babenco
Producer: David Weisman
Screenplay: Leonard Schrader, based on the novel by Manuel Puig
Cinematography: Rodolfo Sanchez
Editing: Mauro Alice
Art Direction: Clovis Bueno
Original Music: Nando Cordeiro, John Neschling
Cast: William Hurt (Luis Molina), Raul Julia (Valentin Arregui), Sonia Braga (Leni Lamaison, Marta, Spider Woman), Jose Lewgoy (Warden), Milton Goncalves (Secret Policeman).
C-120m.

by Rob Nixon